Holi... Festival of colors

February 26th was Holi, the festival of colors. A few friends and I went down to the Tong-Len youth hostel to spend the day with the students. Just about every person we passed on the road was covered in gulal and abeer (a dyed powder in a variety of colors). As we were pulling up, dozens of children came running up to the car, ready to commence our Holi celebration.
“Happy Holi!” being shouted as little hands are coming from every direction to put handfuls of gulal on our face, neck and arms. We filled our hands and began to take revenge on the kids. As if this chaos wasn’t enough, out comes water balloons and buckets of water, causing the powder to turn into a dark blue paint. After a nice long scrubbing, most of the dye was off my skin and it was time to enjoy a feast of delicious Indian food.